PANAJI
Four of Goa's 12 talukas, including the politically significant Salcete, have gone unrepresented in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant cabinet, whose formation was complete with induction of three more ministers on Saturday.
While the non-representation for Salcete is understandable due to the BJP's minimal support base there, Pernem, Canacona and Dharbandora going without a minister could throw up a few hiccups for the saffron party at the next electoral test -- Lok Sabha elections due in 2024.
The BJP has won just one (Navelim) of the eight assembly segments in Salcete with its candidate Ulhas Tuenkar notching a surprise win attributed to a hopelessly divided opposition. But in the other three talukas, considered its strongholds, all the four assembly seats are in the BJP-led coalition's kitty.
Goa has two Lok Sabha seats and the Panaji (North Goa) seat is a relatively safe one for the ruling BJP.
It is South Goa which is a tough one for it to win and it could be tougher in 2024 with Salcete proving to be the highest mountain it will have to climb.
The flip side, however, is the Ponda taluka where all its four MLAs are in the cabinet -- Ravi Naik, Subhash Shirodkar and Govind Gaude of the BJP and the lone non-BJP MLA in the cabinet Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavlikar of the MGP.
BJP strategists are hoping to compensate their Salcete losses with the Ponda advantage but the arithmetic does not sync as just three of the four segments of Ponda taluka -- Ponda, Shiroda and Marcaim -- are in the South Goa parliamentary seat, while the fourth Priol is in North Goa.
Salcete on the other hand is twice as large as Ponda, both in terms of number of assembly seats and aggregate voter strength.
The narrow electoral math of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections aside, the Sawant-led government will have to think of out-of-the-box measures to placate the politically potent and volatile Salcete and meet the taluka's developmental needs.
